Nvidia GTX 470 or Radeon HD 6870

[setter]

What cooling do you need to overclock a graphics card to a figure that makes results worth wile.

Im using the stock cooler, and with the card clocked to 751 mhz it copes fine, doesnt run any warmer than stock speed. Off course if you want you can add an aftermarket cooler, however it may invalidate the warranty.

 

[Rroff]

GTX470 will do upto about 800MHz on the stock cooler - which is a respectable OC over stock. Above that your really gonna need an aftermarket cooler as around 800 upwards the heat ramps up significantly.

Generally tho the stock cooler on most GPUs is fine upto the level of safe overclocking these days, beyond that your talking risky levels of increased voltage and substantially uprated cooling.

 

[Paracelsus]

I'd suggest a 6870, the GTX470 is end of line now (no longer being produced).

Eh? How is that relevant? No mention of speed or value for money...just that one card isn't being made anymore?

 

[dmxdex2020]

Overclocking gpu's is pretty easy, the card youve linked is an EVGA factory overclocked card, (625 mhz), most have the basic core clock of 607 mhz, but theyll comfortably go higher, running my 630mhz core clocked gigabyte at 751mhz, no voltage increase required.

I have that coming tomoz. Is this card capable of 800mhz? Do games see any decent gains? like BFBC2 in DX11?

 

[kmufc77]

I have that coming tomoz. Is this card capable of 800mhz? Do games see any decent gains? like BFBC2 in DX11?

Yes almost guaranteed,with a slight voltage increase for 800mhz

 

[Renni 95]

dont want to make a new thread so thought i would ask for opinions here im getting a msi 470 soon and wondered what ui should overclock it to its standard at 607/3348 what should i oc it to?

sorry for hijacking
regards

 

[setter]

Id say it should be, though ive only pushed to 750 so far on stock volts, adding a second tomorrow, (hopefully) for sli, wont need them clocked that high tbh.

 

[RavenXXX2]

Go after setter's 470 overclock, so 750, you may not need to increase voltage.

 

[95thrifles]

Id say 6870 due to the fact you can add a 2nd later for v good xfire performance (you have the UD6 I see) at a still very respectable power draw

 

[Rroff]

Most will do 800MHz with a small voltage tweak or about 750 without - maybe 775 if you have a good card. I haven't actually seen a card yet fail to do 800MHz.

They max out around 810-850 with the 1.087 voltage limit tho in theory you should be safe upto 1.1volts - which gives around 900MHz - but you seriously need extra cooling for that.

 

[dmxdex2020]

Most will do 800MHz with a small voltage tweak or about 750 without - maybe 775 if you have a good card. I haven't actually seen a card yet fail to do 800MHz.

And if i got an aftermarket cooler what could i push it too?

 

[Renni 95]

Most will do 800MHz with a small voltage tweak or about 750 without - maybe 775 if you have a good card. I haven't actually seen a card yet fail to do 800MHz.

When you say 750mhz do you need to change the memory clock or simply plug the card in bring up afterburner put the card from 607mhz core clock to 750 and be done with it

 

[Scotty-D]

I have been looking at figures regarding both cards and even with the overclocking on the Nvidia 470 it does not reach the 900mhz the Radeon 6870 card gives standard. Is there something I'm missing that makes performance better in the graphics card industry?

 

[Rroff]

And if i got an aftermarket cooler what could i push it too?

Depends on the cooler - I doubt with your average 3rd party cooler you'd get much higher overclocks, just less noise at that overclock.

When you say 750mhz do you need to change the memory clock or simply plug the card in bring up afterburner put the card from 607mhz core clock to 750 and be done with it

Memory overclocking on these cards has fairly small gains so not required really - going from stock memory clocks 1674 to 2000MHz I see barely 2% performance increase and a lot of cards won't do 2000MHz on the memory.

 

[dmxdex2020]

When you say 750mhz do you need to change the memory clock or simply plug the card in bring up afterburner put the card from 607mhz core clock to 750 and be done with it

You can alter core memory and shader clocks with afterburner.

 

[Rroff]

I have been looking at figures regarding both cards and even with the overclocking on the Nvidia 470 it does not reach the 900mhz the Radeon 6870 card gives standard. Is there something I'm missing that makes performance better in the graphics card industry?

They are different architectures so you can't compare. nVidia have their shader units at double the core clock (so typically 1400-1600MHz) whereas AMD cards are running at the same speed as the core clock (typically <1000MHz).

 

[dmxdex2020]

I have been looking at figures regarding both cards and even with the overclocking on the Nvidia 470 it does not reach the 900mhz the Radeon 6870 card gives standard. Is there something I'm missing that makes performance better in the graphics card industry?

Both user different methods. People on here will be able to explain it more.

 

[Renni 95]

Depends on the cooler - I doubt with your average 3rd party cooler you'd get much higher overclocks, just less noise at that overclock.



Memory overclocking on these cards has fairly small gains so not required really - going from stock memory clocks 1674 to 2000MHz I see around 2% performance increase and a lot of cards won't do 2000MHz on the memory.

ahh ok so it is a case of just changing the core clock from 607 to 750? ifso great, on ocuk on the msi 470 it says the memory is 3348?

 

[Renni 95]

You can alter core memory and shader clocks with afterburner.

on my current card it allows me to do memory not shader?

 

[setter]

Basically on mine, i jumped straight from the factory setting of 630 to 750, been rock solid in any game ive played, as for memory, i only increaed this a measly 10mhz, as mentioned the gains arent that signifigant.